


The Boy Next Door

by theflyingdalek



Category: Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: 00Q - Freeform, Fun, M/M, and q doesnt like noise, apartment related fic, bond is ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 02:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflyingdalek/pseuds/theflyingdalek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't a secret that Q liked peace and quiet.</p><p>Actually, it was one of the things that Q liked most about his landlord, the man wouldn't tolerate unnecessary amounts of noise from his tenants. That was why Q had stayed in the same flat for nearly four years, even though now with his new salary he could probably afford better.</p><p>Then Bond moves next door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by tumblr user luccacd 's prompt. "a quiet day inside that is disrupted by a noisy neighbor next door to Q’s flat"

It wasn't a secret that Q liked peace and quiet.

Actually, it was one of the things that Q liked most about his landlord, the man wouldn't tolerate unnecessary amounts of noise from his tenants. That was why Q had stayed in the same flat for nearly four years, even though now with his new salary he could probably afford better.

This all changed though, when Q's landlord dropped dead one day and was replaced by a sweet, but altogether too forgiving grandmother character named Theresa. The woman was short and stout and perpetually smelled of rose water. Two months later, Q's very silent previous neighbor decided to move to Taipei, and someone new moved in. Someone who apparently did not get the silent memo because this someone was causing a racket.

"Theresa, the man has been hammering at something for the past three hours", Q complained on one particularly long day, "He has been _hammering_ "

Q had sat through the loud banging for as long as he could, but he was never one for being patience.

"I'm sorry, dear", Theresa apologized, "but it is daytime. I can't very well tell him to quiet down until at least nine."

Q groaned. What on earth was he supposed to do? There was no way that he was going to be able to get any work done at his flat, but he didn't want to take the tube all the way to HQ either. Anyway, Moneypenny had told him that he didn't have to go in to Q Branch for the next three days, and he could work from home. 

The hammering stopped abruptly. Q had the naiveté to look hopeful for a moment before it picked up again. 

That was it. Q could only handle so much. Q got up from his dining room table, put on his iciest glare, wrenched his door open, and stomped down to his neighbor's door. He rapped lightly, but the noisy inhabitant's perpetual hammering drowned his knock out. He rapped a little harder. Soon enough, Q was banging on the door and seconds away from shouting.

The door opened, and the man who pulled the door open was James Bond.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me", Q groaned.

"Hey, there Q. Can I help you?", Bond asked with a smirk, leaning against the doorway. 

The agent was wearing sweatpants and a grey t-shirt. It was the first time that Q had seen the man out of a suit (or at least slacks and a dress shirt). 

Bond seemed to notice that Q was staring, because the man's smirk widened as he stared back.

"Q? You still there?"

Q blinked a few times and shook his head, remembering why he had been so furious.

"Your hammering is irritating", Q stated bluntly.

"Ah", Bond replied.

"What the hell are you doing here anyway?", 

"I'm building a table."

"What the...?", Q stuttered, "Nevermind, we'll get back to that. I meant what are you doing _here_ , Bond."

James Bond smiled and straightened up.

"I live here", he answered.

"Since when?"

"I've been here for nearly a week now, Q, surely you've noticed."

"I thought you lived closer to HQ", Q commented.

"They sold my flat when I 'died'", Bond answered, "so I took the chance to move."

"So you decided to move here", Q sighed.

"Is there a problem with that, Q?", Bond asked.

The smirk was back.

"Can you just please... hammer less loudly?", Q grumbled.

"Whatever makes you happy, love."

Q turned on his heel and tried his hardest not to stomp back to his flat as he was sure that Bond would be watching him. Once the door was securely shut behind him, Q banged his head three times against the wall.

As soon as he finished, the hammering started again.

How on earth was this his life?


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Q was deep in code mode when he was startled by a knock on his door. 

Q didn't take visitors in his flat. If he felt like he wanted to be social, he would go out to a restaurant or a cafe or a club, the only person who had ever really seen the inside of his flat was his sister. It wasn't so much a security thing as a privacy thing. If no one knew where Q lived, no one could go bother him when he wanted to be a hermit.

So when he heard the knock on the door, a little too heavy to be his landlord's, Q knew that it was double oh seven. He wondered for a bit if Bond would leave if Q ignored the knocking, but Q figured that Bond would simply pick the lock. And Q wasn't ready for the thought of that yet, so Q stood up from his incredibly uncomfortable sitting position on his kitchen counter (he tended to type as he cooked, and then sometimes when he got caught up, he would end up sitting anywhere and working for hours on the floor or on a cabinet) and crossed over to the door.

"Can I help you Agent Bond?", Q asked dryly, not bothering to be polite.

"Hello, Q", Bond drawled, "aren't you going to invite me in?"

Q swung the door open and waved Bond in.

"It isn't 'inviting' if you're going to come in anyway", Q grumbled.

"Just trying to be polite."

As Bond walked in, Q suddenly realized exactly how messy his apartment was. Normally, it wasn't a problem that Q really only cleaned about once a month, since he usually cleaned before his sister dropped by. But now, Q looked around and saw piles of dirty dishes in the sink, used mugs all over the counter, and three week's worth of newspapers stacked on the kitchen table, still unread.

"You're a mess", Bond commented.

The agent looked stunned and surprised. He stood in the middle of the floor, looking around as if he had no idea what to do.

"Yeah, sorry about that", Q replied, "wasn't expecting visitors and all that."

Q liked to think that he was past being surprised by the way that James Bond reacted to certain situations, but nothing prepared him for MI6's most valuable agent cleaning his flat.

"You really don't have to do that", Q said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Bond was wiping the windows with newspaper and Windex. He had already washed all the dishes and vacuumed.

"Well I can't just _leave_ it like that", Bond growled in reply.

"I really don't mind it being the way it was."

"I do."

That was the end of that conversation.

It took Bond two hours and forty seven minutes to clean the entirety of Q's flat. Q knew this because he got bored and started counting the minutes. And by bored he meant "I'm going to stare at the clock because if I don't, I will end up staring at James Bond's ass and that is not okay". 

James Bond collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table, looking much more happy and relaxed than Q had ever seen him. Q didn't know what to do with that, so he put the kettle on.

They sat in awkward silence for a bit. 

"How on _earth_ can you live in all that mess?", Bond finally asked.

"I guess I just don't notice it", Q murmured as he watched the tea steep.

"There were _socks_ in your _sink_."

Q shrugged. 

"I get lost in my work."

"You're a little insane, Q."

Q poured the tea into two mugs and set one in front of Bond. 

"So are you going to tell me why you came over here in the first place?", Q asked. "I'm assuming it wasn't to clean my apartment."

Bond sipped at his tea. It was an act that seemed suspiciously deterring. 

"You came over here to clean my flat?!", Q exclaimed incredulously.

Bond had the decency to look sheepish.

"You left your door open this morning when you were taking out the trash."

"So you decided to barge in to clean my flat."

"Were we even looking at the same flat?!", Bond interrupted. "You can't live in that kind of mess, Q!"

"You're worse than my sister", Q groaned.

Bond leaned back in his chair and smirked. 

Q banged his head against the table and left it there.

"It's alright, Q. I'll make it up to you sometime", Bond whispered in his ear before walking out.

Q didn't even have time to lift his head before he heard the door slam.


	3. Chapter 3

Bond pretty much let himself into Q's flat whenever he wanted. Q would have just made the man a key, but the agent seemed to derive a certain amount of pleasure from picking the lock.

Sometimes Bond would clean, sometimes he would just sit and silently watch Q as he puttered around his flat. Q would be self conscious for all of five minutes before getting distracted in some work-related project or some random _thing_ in his apartment. Seriously, Bond kept making fun of him, but what was Q supposed to do if there was an irritating spot on the wall, and Q had no paint? Apparently, not take an eraser to the wall and bargain with both the eraser and the wall for ten minutes.

Anyway, one day Q pointed out that Bond never seemed to spend any time at his own flat. They were either in the office or in Q's flat or Bond was on a mission. Bond only retired to his room at night, to sleep. For that matter, Q hadn't seen the inside of Bond's flat either. Bond yawned and said that there was nothing to see in his own flat.

"Well, you live in your flat, and you're worth seeing", Q muttered.

His ears turned pink and he quickly hoped that Bond hadn't heard him.

No such luck though, as Bond smirked and opened his mouth to reply.

"Why do you think I have around here all the time then, Q?"

"I would hope that you have better uses of your time than breaking into coworkers' flats and ogling them", Q replied loftily.

"I don't break into all of my coworkers's flats", Bond corrected, "just one."

Bond winked, and Q groaned internally as he tried to control his blush. He could tell that he wasn't doing that great of a job though.

Moneypenny teased Q at work when he had told her of his situation. 

"How did you train the guy to stay in one place, darling?", she asked, "Many have tried."

He had simply marched back to Q Branch, stealing half of her sandwich on his way on principle.

"But seriously though", Moneypenny said later, "have you asked yourself why he follows you around like a puppy?"

"I ask myself that question every day, Eve", Q said as he rolled his eyes.

But Eve simply clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"Boys."

It took Q a while to catch on. It was really rather embarrassing. He came home one day to find James Bond cooking him dinner and realized that it was a sight that he was actually used to. This was his life. Q just stood in the doorway staring a bit, before Bond looked at him oddly and asked him if he was alright.

Then Q marched over and kissed the ridiculous, trespassing, picky, stubborn agent on the mouth.

When Q returned to MI6 the following week with Bond in tow, Moneypenny looked up from her computer and rolled her eyes.

"Took you two long enough."

By the time Q got in that evening, Bond's few possessions had been moved in and neatly stacked amongst Q's things.


End file.
